MUZAFFARABAD, 28 Aug (TNS): Unprovoked Indian shelling at LOC has claimed more civilian lives in Nezapir sector in Haveli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The casualties took place in Fatehpur village of, which came under “unprovoked” Indian shelling from 10pm to 11pm, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Chaudhry Kashif Hussain said.
Two people comprising duo of young brother and sister are reported among the dead while another three were critically wounded when Indian forces opened fire civilian population.
One shell landed in the house of Shaikh Mushtaq, 65, a retired schoolteacher, leaving his children Naveed, 32, and daughter Asma, 20, dead on the spot, Hussain said.
Naveed ran a photocopy shop while Asma was a BSc student.
Mushtaq, his wife Naseema Begum, 55, and another son Ansar, 25, were critically injured and hospitalised in Forward Kahuta, district headquarters of Haveli.
Condemning the “unprovoked and indiscriminate” shelling, AJK’s Minister for Information Mushtaq Minhas said it was the “height of barbarism” on the part of Indian troops to target innocent civilian populations along the LoC.
The latest casualties have pushed the death toll in AJK in the ongoing year to 26 while another 175 have received injuries, according to local officials.
